Andy & Julie Plata's Industry Notes

drupa 2012 Observations: Benny Landa, Inkjet, Packaging & Canon/Océ

Andy & Julie Plata, co-CEOs of the OutputLinks Communications Group, were joined at drupa 2012 by Sara Miflin, managing director of OutputLinks UK, Heberto Pachon, president of OutputLinks Latin America, Katherine O’Brien, senior editor of the American Printer division, and Dennis Mason, associate editor of the GreensheetBIZ division. Here’s the Plata’s report and observations.

The drupa conference is still open until May 16. Although our feet are glad to be home after walking the 17 halls for 11 days, it was exhilarating to see new hardware and software innovations that will be driving the next generation of print technology.

We spoke with analysts, media, users and exhibitors for their feedback on the conference and the direction of the print industry. We are glad to report that on all accounts the industry is looking good – but – only for those who are willing to revitalize their businesses to meet the demands of today’s print and communications buyers.

At the mid-point of the 14 day conference, all the exhibitors we spoke to were very pleased with the traffic and sales/leads they had developed. We heard of good sales from Xerox, Canon/Océ, HP, Konica Minolta, Kodak, Pitney Bowes, manroland and Heidelberg.

The new normal for conferences seems to be lower attendance but higher quality attendees. Attendance was down about 20% from 2008 but the user-attendees were there with a purpose. And the purpose was to buy or make some final considerations before buying in the near future. You could hear the interactions of attendees with the exhibitors discussing real world applications. Exciting!

The ‘WOW’ of the conference was Benny Landa’s Nanographic print technology. Benny and his nano-concept were discussed throughout the conference. Some said his announcement was too soon since the printer will not be commercially available until the end of 2013 at the earliest.  Major companies like Heidelberg, Komori, manroland, KBA,… announced partnership agreements with Landa while professing to know little about their plans to implement the yet to be completed technology.

Landa and his announcements brought great excitement and life to the conference. His booth presentation was a combination of Cirque du Soleil, Star Wars and infomercial. He Apple-ized the printer by showing how today’s iPad-style technology could be used to control and operate a large commercial printer. We feel that Landa’s moxie and presentation brought the print industry up a notch. Watch to see how other vendors add a little glamour to their printers in the very near future.

Inkjet packaging technology seemed to be everywhere. They held out the promise of great profits for printers. It was hard not to miss all the announcements and excitement in this space from companies like Xerox, HP, Screen and Konica Minolta.

Canon/Océ announced their new entry to the package space by hosting guests at their Poing, Germany plant to see the InfiniStream Platform. The printer, which will be available in 2013, uses liquid toner with soft roller technology. At 18 meters long, it produced 14,000 B2-sized sheets per hour with amazing print quality on carton stock.

The buzz at the conference was that packaging is now a near print on demand application. What with new product packages needed for each holiday season or major sporting event and with major retailers requiring customized packaging, it was said that the packaging industry was the next great opportunity for variable, jet stream printers. But many people we spoke with felt that too many printer vendors were chasing too few folding carton placement opportunities. What do you think?

Every drupa seems to be labeled in some way. 2008 was called the inkjet drupa. Many called this the packaging drupa or the nano drupa or the solutions drupa. Let us know what you think drupa 2012 should be labeled.

Over the next few weeks we and our team will be sharing more of their drupa insights. So come back and let’s talk some more.

To powerful print technology,
Andy & Julie Plata
OutputLinks Communications Group

Share your comments below. What are your thoughts on drupa 2012? Let us know. Do you agree or disagree with our views?

The Canon Océ Relationship

The Post-Acquisition Relationship Between Canon & Océ

Canon’s acquisition of Océ is now complete, so what does their future entail?

In this exclusive June 2011 video interview, Andy & Julie Plata of OutputLinks Communications Group, discuss the post-acquisition relationship between Canon and Océ with Rokus van Iperen, chairman of the board of executive directors of Océ.

Watch the exclusive OutputLinks video about the Canon and Océ relationship  here >>>.

Production Print Technology Inspires Customer Passion in Las Vegas

Konica Minolta Where Production Print Matters

By Andy & Julie Plata, co-CEOs, OutputLinks Communications Group

Since OutputLinks speaks to the high volume transaction and production print space, we are limiting our impressions of Konica Minolta’s “Inspire Customer Passion” conference to those related to production print.

We had the opportunity to attend Konica Minolta’s “Inspire Customer Passion” conference January 15-17, 2012. The event was attended by more than 1,100 dealer representatives plus a great number of C-Level Konica Minolta executives, including Ned Umehara, President and CEO of Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.

This was a high-class event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with a dealer orientation on multi-function printers, optimized print services and managed IT services.

But for those of us in the high volume print arena, a bigger pay off than the slot machines was the serious focus that Konica Minolta brought to production print at the conference. A large section of the Exhibit showcase at the event was dedicated to production print equipment and demonstrations.

We must admit that as previous owners of production print facilities, we had never considered Konica Minolta a serious player in that space. But, after this conference, we are now well aware that Konica Minolta is serious about and intends to be a major player in production print.

10 Million Page/Month Printers!

Konica Minolta has a growing array of direct or partnered production printers. Their offerings include a line of high speed, variable data printers capable  of producing up to 10 million pages/month or their digital presses capable of 500,000 page/month or their wide format printers or their…

These were all big eye openers for us. If you are like us and always considered Konica Minolta as office only low to mid volume office printers, you can probably understand our amazement. We invested a good deal of time at the conference, taking a closer look at how Konica Minolta could have a positive effect on the business of print for print service providers and commercial printers.

The Konica Minolta team did a great job at the conference of showing how the combination of their corporate and dealer teams were being trained and supported to handle large, high demand print facilities. A number of case studies and success stories showed that the march to success in Production print was well on the way for Konica Minolta and its dealers.

In todays’ business environment, maximizing quality and productivity while minimizing operating and acquisition costs is essential.  If Konica Minolta can help high volume printers achieve those objectives, they will be a welcome friend to the OutputLinks high volume print community.

We look forward to following Konica Minolta over the coming months to monitor and report on their continuing success in production print. So come back soon for our follow-on reports or just click the RSS Feed button on this page to follow our reports.

You can also use the social media icons at the top to follow us.

• We invite you to share your views on our report or on your Konica Minolta experience in the Comments Sections below.
• For a copy of tomorrow’s MPSConnect eNews with “the rest of the story” about the “Inspire Customer Passion” conference >>>

Happy Print
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO's, OutputLinks Communications Group

China's 12th Five-Year Plan Goal: ‘World Leader in Print Industry’!

 

Report on the Printing Industry in China

By Andy & Julie Plata, co-CEOs, OutputLinks Communications Group

China is now in its 12^th Five-Year Plan for the print industry. China’s goal is to be the leader in printing and they see their strategic planning as the path to success.

 Prospection of the 12^th Five Year Plan
          (Pro`spec´tion n, The act of looking forward, or of providing for future wants; foresight.)

• Was initiated in 2011
• Strongly Promote Industries’ Transforming Development under the Conduction Spirits Advocated of the Fifth Session
• Pushing Forward the Booming Development of Press & Publications Industry by Cultivating More Talents
• Change Developing Methods and Carefully Schedule to Accelerate building China into a Strong Printing country
• Technology Breaking on Green Digital Print
• Innovation – the Main Rhythm of the 12^th Five-year of Printing Industry

 

During the 12^th Five-Year Plan the China Printing Industry is facing:

• Intense competition globally, printing industries’ uprising in newly developing countries and areas like India
• Strict barrier concerning environmental-friendly regulations

Printing Industry Growth
During the 11^th Five-Year Plan, the gross output of the printing industry in China doubled. The industry grew at 16-17% annually. Digital technology and the Internet had a large impact of the printing experience during these 5 years.

GAPP Statistics
To give a perspective on the size of the printing industry in China, in 2010 there were over 100,000 printing companies employing 3.8 million people. The industrial output rose from 332.67 billion Yuan in 2005 to 636.773 billion Yuan in 2009.

In 2007 output reached 440 billion Yuan and China achieved the 11^th Five-Year Plan goal in 2 years.

Although influenced by the economic crisis, the output value of foreign trade and direct export reached 43.913 billion Yuan in 2009, 46% higher than 2005. The goal of 11^th Five-Year Plan was completed in advance.

3 main industrial areas of printing were formed in 2009

• 19,223 printing companies in the Perl River Delta area based on Guangdong, who relies on the export from HK & Macao
• 27,494 printing companies in the Yangzi River Delta area based in Shanghai
• 19,936 printing companies in the Ring Bohai area based on Beijing

“Digital Printing in China”
High-end, sheet-fed, color digital presses (higher than 68 A4 pages/min) from companies like Xerox, Océ, Konica Minolta, HP, and Kodak in China. In July 2010 there were 455 high-end, sheet-fed, color digital presses in China, 101 more than the year before. A growth rate of 29%!

The print industry vendors have often told us China was a major focus. From the growth rates we have seen we predict that the industry vendors will increase their involvement in the Chinese print market place.

InfoTrends’ research supports the strong growth with their research showing the China print on demand market will have an 18.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) on the overall retail value of print of between 2010 through 2015. You can read more at - InfoTrends’ China Print On Demand Study Reports Market to Grow Rapidly

It will be interesting to see what the purchase power of China will bring to the global traditional and digital printing industry. What could happen in the print industry if each country took this same 5 year plan approach?

We invite you to share your comments or questions about the printing industry in China in the Comments Section below.

Happy Print,
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO’s, OutputLinks Communications Group

All In Print China Photos

Morning Panel Discussion at Digital Printing Forum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon Panel Discussion at Digital Printing Forum

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Road With Andy & Julie: All In Print China

Somebody forgot to tell the Chinese that “printing is dead”.

The world of print is vibrant and growing in China. The industry has experienced a growth rate of 16-17% annually since OutputLinks launched its partnership with China Academy of Print Technology in 2007.

During our eight days in Shanghai, we attended a number of events associated with the All In Print Conference.  In this article we will give an overview of those event and the impressions we gained from our attendance.

Saturday: The Leadership Dinner

We had the opportunity to be included in a dinner with 20 or so of the leaders of the key print organizations in China and Taiwan. Discussions centered on the growth of the industry, quality enhancements and green initiatives. Our impression from this dinner event was that the green movement is seen as an important market gaining initiative among Chinese print professionals.

Sunday: The Global Printing Summit Forum

This day-long forum consisted about 200 attendees and presentations by government officials, organization leaders, industry experts and printing equipment suppliers. The presentations provided a comprehensive analysis on the development of both the global and the Chinese printing market.

From this session, it was apparent that the Chinese print industry faces many of the same challenges as the print industry in Europe or Asia or the Americas. Competition from low cost suppliers, dealing with technology advancements and equipment obsolescence and labor issues.

Tuesday: The Digital Printing Technology Summit Forum

The Digital Printing Technology Summit Forum is recognized as the premier digital printing conference in China. The forum focused on the development and adoption of digital printing and its impact on publication, packaging and communication applications in China.

This was a day-long event attended by approximately 300 with presentations by wide range of users, vendors and industry experts, including us, Andy & Julie. Our presentation was on the state of digital print in North America.

Other presenters shared the digital implementation strategies their companies were employing. Presentations by vendors like InfoPrint, Shanghai Electric and Konica Minolta presented the digital technologies and workflows to help the industry grow.

Monday- Thursday: All In Print Conference

This Conference occurs every 3 years and the growth since we were here in 2008 has been phenomenal in both exhibitor and visitor numbers.

The All In Print Conference is a good barometer of China’s printing industry. Since the 2008 All In Print the Everything seems to be growing in China.

The All In Print Conference had exhibitions spread across 7 halls all filled to capacity with printers, software, workflow, supplies and parts vendors. Hall One was focused on digital print. Xerox, an industry leader, had the biggest booth in Hall 1 and it was continuously packed.

Someone obviously forgot to tell Kodak China about all the press of their coming demise because they had one of the second or third largest booths in Hall 1 with high end equipment including a  fully operational Prosper Press. Duncan Newton, Kodak, Application & Business Development, Asia Pacific, shared with us that most of the equipment at the show had been sold and would immediately be delivered to the new owners. 

Konica Minolta took an aggressive position at the show with a large front row booth right across form Xerox.

Founder Electronics was show casing their 1^st digital printer (EagleJet L1000 ). This is a major step as it is, to our knowledge, the first Chinese built high volume digital printer.

Shanghai Electric, the new owner of Goss, seemed to have the largest presence at the Conference with large booths spread over multiple halls. Their presence in Hall 1 led us to wonder how long before Shanghai Electric takes a position in in the high volume digital printing space through either acquisition or their own home grown development.  

Over the past ten years, the development of China's printing industry entered an era of remarkable achievement. In 2006, for example, the total output value for the country's printing industry was placed at around US $47 billion, with printing supplies and printing equipment accounting for around 5.5%. Chinese economic forecasts predict total output to reach US $57 billion by 2010.

The Chinese market is now in great demand for imported products. The increase of business activities and foreign investments in China provides the printing industry more opportunities as well as a promising future.

The first of what we predict - there will be many Chinese companies manufacturing ink jet printers over the next few years.  Do any of you readers have an opinion prediction?

For those that think printing is dead, come to China:

• To hear and feel  the buzz around print;

• See youth in great numbers who are the NewGen of print in China;

• Hear about the official 5-Year Plan that guides the industry’s development;

• Hear of GREEN initiatives as market-grain strategy versus a cost annoyance;

• Print development supported by government policies versus slighted by politicians.

Next week we will have information about China's 11th and 12th Five Year Plan as well as pictures of the event.

We invite you to share your comments or questions about All In Print China or our observations in the Comments Section below.

Happy Print,
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO’s, OutputLinks Communications Group

All in Print China or China International Exhibition for All Printing Technology & Equipment is organized by Printing Technology Association of China, China Academy of Printing Technology, and Messe Düsseldorf (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. under the approval by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, with Keyin Print Media and Messe Düsseldorf (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. as the undertakers, and Shanghai Printing Trade Association as the co-organizer. It is one of the most important professional exhibitions of the printing industry in China.

All in Print China 2011 Kicks Off in Shanghai

Greetings from Shanghai and the All in Print China conference, where we will be speaking tomorrow. We will bring you our full report and our observations in next week's OutputLinks eNews.

All in Print China 2011 is a leading printing trade fair. It staged its grand opening on Nov. 14, Shanghai New International Expo Center. The expo has 629 exhibitors from more than 20 countries and regions from around the globe.

With the theme of ”Synergy of Print and Digital Era,” the 4th All in Print China is comprehensively showcasing industry achievements and megatrends.

Companies like KBA, Komori, TKS, Mitsubishi, Fuji Xerox, Fujifilm, Kodak, Founder Group, Konica Minolta, Shanghai Electric Group, Beiren Group Corporation, BASCH, Lucky Group, etc., are presenting their latest products, technologies and equipment.

Stay tuned for our report.

再见 (good bye),
Andy & Julie

Learn about the event here >>>.

Share your comments below.

American Printer Planning – Community Input

By Andy & Julie Plata, OutputLinks Communications Group

We bought American Printer a few weeks ago because we felt that after 123 years serving the industry, it deserved new life.

Give Us Your Feedback
As we plan American Printer’s future, we would appreciate your feedback on what you would like to see in a new-age, print focused magazine.

Or, do you just think we were crazy to buy it?

We look forward to your feedback in the comments section below.

Buzz & Buying: the Customer Focused, Successful GRAPH EXPO 2011

Traffic was there, vendors were there, buyers were there – and - business was buzzing and buying was occurring.

By all accounts GRAPH EXPO was a success.

*We look forward to hearing in the Comments Section below from many of you who attended GRAPH EXPO as either exhibitors or vendors to get your view point on the Conference.

Almost all of the exhibitors we spoke with were elated and said that being at the show was well worth their time and money investments. Now if the vendors were happy, then the users that attended must have been in the buying mood.
The user/buyers we spoke rated the conference a success primarily because it seemed like a primary focus of the exhibitor presentations was on helping them, the customer, succeed with an emphasis on:

• Customer communications,
• Marketing services,
• Capturing and understanding the customers’ customers,
• How to increase your ROI on your printing purchase.

We are calling the 2011 GRAPH EXPO, the Customer Success Conference. We called last year’s GRAPH EXPO the Inkjet Conference since much of the emphasis seemed to be on the quality and speed of inkjet. This year’s customer emphasis is why we are calling it the Customer Success Conference. Gone are the days of “build it and they will buy”. GRAPH EXPO 2011 was all about showing solutions to help customers succeed.

The industry seems to have come to grips with the continuing decline and commoditization of many types of print. In the past there has been a strong focus on taking costs out of the print production to increase ROI. And now at this conference, the ROI focus seems to have shifted to increasing the value of printed products through creative use of the technologies already installed merged with the latest printer, software and workflow technologies. And we think this is good. We have always felt you can only save a finite amount but the opportunity to gain by adding value is almost infinite.

Customers were looking for assistance in how to make the latest and greatest equipment and software make money for them. And what they found were actionable items and information take-aways that they could immediately implement.

Buzz phrases we liked at GRAPH EXPO:

• Let print be part of the communication mix;
• The power of print plus other communication media equals cross media;
• Understand your customer’s needs before presenting the power of print to them;
• Print is powerful, show the power;
• Streamlining workflow is an important part of print today;
• Effective uses of workflow tools are critical in keeping production costs low;
• Heidelberg and Komori were back as exhibitors after missing last year’s conference;
• Having many different co-located events during GRAPH EXPO was a great idea;

 
Our Outputlinks Communications Group Announcements
GRAPH EXPO 2011 was where we chose to announce the global expansion of the new Outputlinks Communications Group. 
We announced the acquisition of American Printer. And, people were kind enough to share that our acquisition of the 120 year old company and the hiring of the world famous, Katherine O’Brien, created a major buzz at the show. 

OutputLinks Latin America, OutputLinks France and OutputLinks Italy were introduced and Heberto Pachon, the president of OutputLinks Latin America was present at the Conference. 

Ray Prince, the recently added president of GreensheetBIZ was in attendance. 
John Lopiano, Brian Baxendale, Ron Friedman, and Nina Smith who are Board Members of the Outputlinks Communications Group were in attendance as well.  

We invite you to share your comments or questions about GRAPH EXPO or our observations in the Comments Section below.

Happy Print,
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO’s, OutputLinks Communications Group

The Océ and manroland Strategic Partnership

In this article we focus on the Océ - manroland strategic partnership and its possible effect on the future direction of the global print and output industry.

Trust

“Trust” is the word we most often hear when we speak to either the Océ or manroland teams about their strategic partnership. Even though the specifics of the relationship are still being developed both companies seem to be committed to developing and maintaining a true win/win relationship.

For the skeptics, we understand that you are probably thinking that most partnerships begin with these types of nice words and announcements but few stick with them. And we agree with that assessment of most partnerships. However, after spending a few days with the CEOs and senior executives of both firms in Germany last month, we truly feel that this partnership is different.

Commonality

Océ and manroland are different companies but with a great deal of German culture, language and geography in common. But most importantly, they both have a common commitment to print and the technology that enables print.

We characterize Océ and manroland as having a common DNA.

Although their respective offset - digital products have been seen as competitive technologies in the past, the two companies have a common focus on enabling and promoting the value of print. Over the years, the technologists and the executives of both firms have had many informal meetings and plant visits to discuss common problems and needs.

The common focus on print multiplied by the DNA commonalities has proven to be a strong foundation for this powerful, developing partnership.

The Océ - manroland strategic partnership reminds us of the Vision3 Summit earlier this year where three semi-competitors responded to the changes in the marketplace and the needs of their clients to focus on their commonality versus their differences and create a new and highly effective program.

Strategic Partnership

“Strategic” is the other term we consistently hear when we discuss the partnership with the two teams. It seems the reason they tend to stress strategic is that they feel his new relationship goes way beyond a simple distribution partnership. Beyond distribution agreements and joint sales calls the partnership includes possible technology transfers, cooperative product developments and joint manufacturing arrangements. Hence, the strategic partnership designation is a key differentiator from other recently announced offset-digital alliances.

Like a Marriage

The alliance between Océ and manroland is like a marriage – and we know a bit about that subject. It’s like they have lived in the same neighborhood and have known each other for years. Then after a few dates they finally said “I do” to their strategic relationship.

In medieval Europe, marriages between country leaders often resulted in a stronger, larger empire. This “marriage’ between two industry leaders can bring the expansion and strength to enable our great print industry to flourish with new and exciting innovations to help printers around the work more effectively and efficiently while responding to evolving communication trends.

The Interviews

We had the opportunity to interview three of Océ and manroland’s senior executives during the opening session of Océ’s Production Printing Summit last month. Here are excerpts from some of the answers we received to a few of our questions:

Rokus van Iperen, Chairman of the Océ Board of Executive Directors
“This alliance combines the thought leadership and market intelligence of two technology leaders… that will bring many benefits for graphic arts customers, enabling them to combine the advantages of offset presses with digital presses. This ‘technology marriage’ will enable them to execute new business models, creating new and competitive offerings for their customers, e.g. short run book and magazine printing as well as individualisation of other printed products.”

Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO manroland

“With the combined competencies of manroland as a world leader in web offset and Océ as a world leader in digital web printing, the two partners work to enhance digital/offset workflows and system components for overall packages in high-performance digital printing that are the first of their kind in the global marketplace… Together with Océ we expect additional sales of about 100 million Euro in the next four to five years.”

Sebastian Landesberger, Executive Vice President Océ Production Printing

“We were 90% right about what offset was all about. Océ and manroland now have the true numbers of the time, materials and cost of print jobs on each other’s technology. With the true facts they can help the customers choose the correct technology that is right for them.”

*Note: we look forward to providing more from these interesting interviews in the near future.

The Major Points

A few of the major points we found related to the partnership were:

• Océ and manroland have openly shared their customer lists with each other. This is amazing and shows the ‘trust’ factor.
• Manroland is distributing the entire portfolio of Océ’s industrial inkjet production systems including the Océ JetStream family and the Océ ColorStream 3500.
• Manroland will initially distribute the Océ printing systems in Central Europe, with the large industrial nations and other strategically important markets to follow in the next quarters.
• Océ and manroland R&D teams are now collaborating on each other’s future products.
• Océ and manroland now conduct joint sales calls to hear together the needs of the client and propose the best solution, not the product they are trying to sell.
• Manroland has identified about 2000 potential customers and expects sales of about 100 million Euro in Océ products the next four to five years.
• The synergy between manroland’s printnet and Océ’s PRISMAsuite provides a unique value proposition for hybrid offset to digital solutions.

Possible Industry Effect

With the Océ or manroland team printers will now be able to engage in business building discussions based upon the best solutions for the specific needs versus engaging in a digital versus offset tug of war. In response, other companies will form or evolve their offset-digital partnerships to meet the competitive threat. As a result, the global print industry will be better served with the wisdom and technology from both ends of the print world.

Hence, the best in digital and the best offset technology will be engaged to meet a printer’s needs for the quality, speed, flexibility, reliability and cost efficiencies to meet the requirements  of their evolving and demanding clients.

BYE

As we close, we invite you to click the RSS feed button on this page to follow our print industry articles and reports. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter by clicking the buttons at the top of this article.

We invite you to share your comments or questions about the Océ – manroland strategic relationship or our observations in the Comments Section below.

Happy Print,
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO’s, OutputLinks Communications Group

Two JetStreams & a ColorStream 3500 Announcement at Océ’s Production Printing Summit 2011

In this article we would like to share our observations of the JetStream and ColorStream product announcements at the Océ Summit. This is our 2nd article on Océ’s Production Printing Summit 2011.   If you missed our 1st article you can read it here >>>

JetStream 1400 & JetStream 3000
Let's begin with the JetStream announcements. We remember just eight months ago sitting in sessions where the analyst community were questioning Océ executives about the future of the JetStream line after the new revolutionary ColorStream 3500 was announced.  

Océ senior management said that the JetStream line would continue but many doubted that to be the case. The announcement of the JetStream 1400 and JetStream 3000 at the Summit proved those doubts to be in vain.

Promises Kept
Sebastian Landesberger proudly commented "we keep our promises" when he introduced the new printers in the opening session. We imagine that keeping this promise was very much appreciated by Océ’s clients around the world who have built businesses on and depend on the JetStream products. And Océ’s sales force also appreciate that the new JetStream printers will close the gap with competitive printers in the marketplace.

This “promises kept” announcement was very important to the current install base and will surely speak loudly to those considering Océ technology in the future. The promises Océ kept included:

• Continuing and adding to the JetStream product portfolio,
• Providing higher speed options,
• Maintaining the print quality even at the increased speed,
• Maintaining the 1200 dpi perceived print quality,
• Providing upward upgradability to the new printers.

These two new JetStream printers are FAST. The JetStream 1400 prints 33% faster than the JetStream 1000 and the JetStream 3000 is 33% faster than the JetStream 2200. The JetStream 3000 prints at 656 feet per minute (200 Meters per minute). WOW!

Rather than repeat information that Jim Hamilton of InfoTrends has done an excellent job of compiling, we invite you to read his article if you want detailed technical information about the two printers >>>

ColorStream 3500
It was announced that so many ColorStream 3500s had already been sold and that production would be increased by 50% to meet current demand. This is amazing in that the printer was only announced 8 months ago.  When it was demonstrated for the first time at the Tokyo Canon Expo, it seemed more like a proof of concept versus a ready to be sold printer. But Océ promised that shipments would occur in Mid 2011 and they once again kept their promises. At the Summit, the five ColorStream 3500 engines were shown in two twin and one single configuration.

Corus, a French print services provider, was the first installation worldwide of the ColorStream 3500. In one of the Plaza TV interviews we conducted during the Summit, we interviewed Corus Managing Director Hervé Jourdan, and he told us that the printer has already been so successful that they plan on ordering a second ColorStream 3500 very shortly.
*To read more about Corus and their success with the ColorStream 3500 click here>>>>

It seems that despite the tough economic times the ColorStream 3500’s high productivity plus its media, ink, paper width, configuration, integration and acquisition flexibility helped prospects see the ColorStream 3500 as a money maker versus overhead; hence, the immediate sales success.

Our Observations
We feel that Océ’s success with the ColorStream 3500 has importance beyond the sales numbers. The fact that customers are making major investment “buy” decisions from a company that was recently acquired shows that the global print market is trusting the “Océ and Canon: Stronger Together” slogan that we see on all Océ literature. The strength of Canon – Océ multiplied by the Océ – manroland partnership should have a major impact on the global print market.

And as Canon continues to increase its focus on Océ’s brand, its high speed technology and it’s fast to market capability, we are sure to see many additional game-changing products from Océ and manroland as we move towards drupa in 2012.

As we close this segment of our Summit reporting, we invite you to click the RSS feed button on this page to follow our Océ Production Printing Summit reports over the next weeks. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

We invite you to share your comments or questions about the Océ Production Printing Summit or our observations in the Comments Section below.

Click here to see some photos from the Summit >>>>

Happy Print,
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO’s, OutputLinks Communications Group